Cruise holidays are growing in popularity, but booking one isn’t as simple as all that. Cruise expert Gary Bembridge has taken to his latest Tips for Travellers video to shed light on the numerous “tricks, traps, and mistakes to avoid” that travellers face when booking their sea voyage.
Zeroing in on drinks packages, Bembridge flags that these can inflate your holiday expenses by up to $1,000 (roughly £800). The key question is: do you need one?
It takes a savvy set of calculations to figure this out. Get your sums right and, according to Gary, you could pocket savings of 20% compared to buying your tipples as you cruise.
He explains how he helped a friend through the tricky choice of whether to opt for a drinks package – and from the vast selection, which to choose, reports the Daily Record.
Adding to the puzzlement, drinks package rules stipulate that every adult in a group must pick the same option, an apparent move by cruise lines to prevent shrewd patrons from sharing a single package.
Bembridge counselled his friend considering his expected daily intake: “They are going on a port-intensive Western Mediterranean cruise with just one sea day,” he said.
“They will be doing seven to nine-hour excursions to Rome, Florence and Cinque Terre.”
Bembridge’s reasoning is clear, more time ashore equals less time frequenting the on-board bars. He contrasts, “If they were going on a repositioning cruise with mostly sea days,” he postulates, “they may end up drinking and using the drinks package more.”
Gary, after careful calculations, concluded that his friend made the right choice by opting for a drinks package. He encouraged them to fully utilise it, saying: “I wasn’t encouraging them to get drunk and do it to excess every day.”
But he emphasised the importance of exploring all the options available in the package, including bottled sodas, energy drinks, specialty teas and coffees, smoothies, bottles of water, hot chocolates, and fancy coffees like Irish coffee.
Gary wrapped up his advice by recommending booking the drinks package in advance to avoid paying more once on board.
